Stalking the Pharmacist (19 page)

“I don’t know what you mean.”

She laughed. She had to. Crying
was the only other option and she may still end up doing so in the near future.
“Oh please. I know you’re holding back on me, which is the main reason I can’t
fully mate with you guys yet. How can I when you don’t really want me?”

Oh shit!

Her voice broke as tears
gathered in her throat and she swallowed them down.

“Of course I want you,
Ashleigh. You’re our mate.”

A pressure gasket burst in
her chest and she screamed at him. “I’m not going to stay just because I’m your
mate! This relationship has to be about love and affection, not obligation and
duty!”

She pushed herself back on
the sofa and crossed her arms over her chest, her breathing
labored
.
She forced herself to continue, though her instincts were screaming at her to
get up and walk out on him. He was just sitting there doing
nothing
!

“I am fully committed to
staying here and making our life work. Despite the horrible ex-wives, possibly
bitchy stepchildren, and a shifter world I am petrified of. What the hell do
you have to be afraid of?”

Scott opened his mouth,
then
closed it again.

Ash cried out in
exasperation. What else did she have to say to make this extremely intelligent
man understand?

“For fuck’s
sake, Scott!
What is it? What is the worst thing that could happen?”

Her words echoed around the room and she
glared at her lover. He shifted on the couch and swallowed several times, his
adam’s
apple bobbing like a buoy in the ocean.

“You’ll turn out like all the rest of them,
Ash. I know you will.”

“I will what? Scott, tell me!”

Ash’s eyes burned with tears, and her heart
ached for the man before her. No matter how much love, affection, and attention
she gave him, it never seemed to be enough.

“You’ll turn into a bitch.”

Wow.
That was not what I was expecting.

“Why would you assume that? Did all your
other lovers make you feel the way I do?”

Scott stared at her with his intense green
eyes and shook his head slowly.

“You felt the perfect pair mate electricity
thing with other women?”

Again,
that shake
of his head, more vigorously this time.

She was playing a dangerous game here.
Scott was sitting on the precipice of a cliff. He was either going to dive off
and into their love, or he’d back away and never approach the edge again.

“Have you ever met a woman like me? Who
wanted to hold you, love you,
discuss
concepts and
ideas with you?”

He responded for the third time in the same
way and she laughed a little, her heart in her throat.

They’d shared so much. She knew down to the
depths of her soul that she was designed for these men. What was he really
afraid of?

“Scott, you are the most logical man I have
ever met. You’re gorgeous, intelligent, and I know your heart is capable of
loving me with everything you have.”

He was nodding now, looking away from her
when his eyes began shimmering with tears.

Was that the way through to him? To tell
him how happy she was?

“Scott, I am so happy and it is all because
of you and Jack.”

He grimaced and she knew she’d hit another
scar. She slid her hand into his, feeling the glow of their connection through
her skin.

“Scott, I can’t say I love you more than
your twin. We’re not designed that way. But I love you just as much. You’re
perfect compliments to each other and between you
both,
you meet every one of my needs. When I have a problem with my business, I know I
can turn to you. Jack can joke me out of any bad mood, and you can touch me
until I cry at the sheer joy of it. Why would I ever jeopardize any of that by
being a bitch?”

Scott let out a laugh that was almost
cruel.

“Because degrading me is the best way to
control me.”

Tears welled and slid down her cheeks. What
sort of life had this man led?

“That’s not how I want to keep you by my
side, Scott. I intend to make you so happy that you’ll never want to leave me.”

He coughed and looked away again, clearing
his throat with rough, broken sounds.

“Yeah
…
well that
would be a first.”

Ash swallowed awkwardly around the lump in
her throat. This was the harder bit, cracking open her heart and hoping to God
he didn’t want to add to her pain.

“I spent years with a man who kept trying
to squash me down and change me into something he wanted me to be.”

Her voice faltered and Scott pulled her
closer, drawing her against his warm body and over into his lap.

She wiped away the tears with the backs of
her hands and took some calming breaths so that she could keep talking.

Ash looked up into Scott’s shimmering gaze
and cupped the side of his head, stroking her thumb through the silver hair at
his temple.

“I love you so much, Scott, and I know you
are what I need. Love for me is putting the other person’s needs above my own.
I’ll never hurt you, not on purpose. I feel gutted when you’re in pain.”

Something shifted through Scott’s
expression and he buried his face into her hair. She wrapped her arms around
his strong frame, holding him to her.

He spoke against her neck, his breath hot
on her skin.

“If you change, Ashleigh, it’ll kill me.”
He pulled back and stared up at her with eyes as deep as a lake. “I already
love you more than I’ve ever loved anyone. If you turn on me now…”

She gripped his head and stared down at him
and spoke the words that were being screamed from her heart.

“I will never turn on you.”

They kissed like they’d never get the
chance to again. Tongues sparring in each other’s mouths, hands grappling, and
groans breaking the air around them.

“Bed.
Now.
I need to
show you how much you mean to me.” Scott growled at her as he swung her up into
his arms and began walking back toward their bedroom with her.

Ash’s heart was swimming in happiness and
light, begging with her to end this separation and fully commit to her new
family.

****

Scott’s heart pounded in his chest like the
thumping of a bass guitar, the vibrations ricocheting through his body from his
center
all the way to his fingertips.

“You really want me, sweetheart? All of
me?”

The words rolled out of him without
restraint and he kissed her possessively, tasting her distinctive sweetness as
he strode down the hallway.

She nodded and gripped his neck tight,
panting and flushed in his arms. “Yes. Please, Scott.” Fuck, she was beautiful!

He kneed open the door, and Jack sat bolt
upright in bed.

“Is she okay? What happened?”

Scott chuckled, the feeling strange in his
belly. So he focused on it again and threw Ash into the
center
of the bed, letting a rumbling laugh emerge when she bounced into Jack.

“Have I missed something?” Jack wrapped his
arms around Ash, automatically sliding his hands up under the long singlet she
wore and exposing her soft belly and the gorgeous thighs he loved to be
between.

Scott pulled off his top and pushed his
pants down, his hot body itching to be completely naked.

“No, just our mate
pushing me into manning up.”

Ash glared at him. “Hey!”

He laughed again, the stretching of his
lips and cheeks feeling awkward and strange.

“It’s true, though. You were right.” He
smiled down at the people who were now his family and moaned as his hand found
his own stiffening cock, stroking the aching flesh slowly.

“My past has been holding me back, but you
both deserve more than that. You’re going to be my family now, aren’t you?” He
looked straight at Ash and she nodded.

“Yes, and I know we haven’t talked about
kids yet, but do you guys want more?”

Scott glanced at his twin, whose eyes
widened. He shrugged, his mind filling with possibilities. More kids?

“If you’d asked me last week, I would have
said no way. But with you, Ash, I’m excited about having the family I always
dreamed of.”

Ash giggled as Jack stripped the singlet
off her completely, grabbing her abundant boobs with easy familiarity.

“You mean, just more children?” she asked,
looking between them.

Scott shared a look with his brother. No
they didn’t mean just
more
.

“No, we mean a true family.
One where our woman loves us and our children.
A house full of laughter and happiness.”

“
Ow
.” He grabbed his
chest as something exploded inside his heart, spreading out like rippling waves
in a pond. His knees shook and he staggered, reaching out and grabbing the
doorframe to steady himself.

“You okay?”

He nodded and rubbed his chest, the pain
receding. In its place was the lightness he’d felt for a brief moment this
morning.
Filling him up until he was completely encompassed
with the feeling, his head now clear of all negativity.

“Wow…yeah, that’s exactly what I want.”

The bliss spread through his whole body,
relaxing all of his muscles.

Jack grunted as he continued to caress
their woman.
“Me too.”

Ash wiped away the tears on her cheeks, and
Scott crawled onto the bed, pulling her into his arms and kissing her.

“Are you ready to mate with us now? Bond
with us so that from this moment on we’ll never be able to survive without
you?”

Ash nodded slowly, two more transparent
tears slipping down her flushed cheeks.

“Yes, please.”

Scott pushed his lover down and kissed her
once more before kissing a trail down her chest until he found the slope of her
breast. He loved how voluptuous she was, and couldn’t wait to see their babe
suckling her.

She turned with a moan, and he gave her
what she was obviously asking for, taking her nipple into his mouth and drawing
on the bud.

“Oh, my…” Ash arched her back and he sucked
harder, loving the way her hands tugged on his hair and held him to her.

Jack’s shoulder pressed into him and he
moved south, giving over her breasts to his brother. He inserted his tongue
into her belly button and smiled as he watched Jack plumping up her breasts and
tweaking the tips with his fingers and tongue.

He moved lower, running his tongue down the
center
of her and circling her clit.

“Ah! Scott!” She gasped and bucked as he
explored her flesh, loving the sweet taste and strong scent of his gorgeous
woman.

Scott licked down between her
open petals and tasted her wetness. She groaned,
then
gasped.

He looked up and saw Jack on
his knees, sliding his cock between her lips.

Scott smiled and continued to
love her body,
reveling
in her tight grip on his hair
and her wiggles of pleasure.

“Scott,” Ash panted, her
voice slightly muffled, “come up here too.”

Scott crawled up beside her,
tweaking her nipples on the way up.

He knelt next to her head
opposite his brother and groaned when she grabbed his semierect cock in her
hand and began pumping him while she sucked Jack.

Scott let his eyes close and
moved his hips in time with her tugging.

Wet heat engulfed his cock,
and his eyes flew open to watch Ash’s mouth working his flesh. His gorgeous,
giving woman was driving him insane. Tingles of pleasure raced up his spine,
and his cock throbbed with every suck and tug of her mouth and tongue. She
alternated twice more and by then Scott’s cock was bright red and making pearly
drops at the slit.

It was time to bind Ash to
them forever.

Chapter Fourteen

Ash licked the drop of salty cream from the
tip of Scott’s gorgeous cock and swallowed with relish. She grabbed tighter to
his hot flesh as he began to pull away from her and looked up at him.

“Let’s make love to you, sweetheart.”

Absolutely!

“Oh
…
yes.”

She let go of her lovers and watched them
both move off the mattress to stand at the end of the bed. Scott grabbed two
condoms out of a nearby drawer and handed one to Jack. Panic surfaced, bubbling
up in her blood like air in water. She didn’t want that protection or barrier
between them. Not anymore.